The universal emotion of disgust is one that is both intrinsic to our survival protecting us from external poisons, but also in surprising ways prevents us from having to confront our own weaknesses and even mortality. Listen as psychologist and author, Rachel Herz illuminates us about how what we find disgusting uniquely reflects our personality, how we treat others and what we find most fascinating. Don’t miss this compelling conversation that will forever alter how you perceive what disgusts you.

Rachel Herz is a world-renowned expert on the psychology of smell, and author of The Scent of Desire and most recently, That’s Disgusting in addition to numerous research publications. Since the mid-1990s Rachel has been consulting for many of the world’s leading multinational fragrance and flavor companies and regularly lectures to national and international audiences.

After completing her PhD in 1992, she won a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Post-Doctoral Award and took her research to the University of British Columbia.^[1] In 1994, she received the Ajinomoto USA Inaugural Award for Promising Young Scientists and joined the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia as an Assistant Member.^[2] In 2000, Rachel Herz joined the faculty at Brown University, where she first was a member of the Psychology Department and is now a visiting professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, of Brown University Medical School.  In 2004 Rachel shifted her relationship with Brown University to more limited involvement so that she could pursue other creative enterprises. It was at this time that she began writing The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell  as well as working on other means to educate and stimulate the general public about the chemical senses.